The Internet is an electronic workplace within which a variety of business transactions, research, personal and business communications, etc., are conducted. Given the wide range of applications and individual preferences/requirements, it is inevitable that there are conflicting interests amongst the different users. A particular important area of concern here is the issue of privacy. Problems arise here since communications between different users are done using electronic means, typically using software programs known as browsers.
In order to appreciate the privacy issue, it is useful the consider user communications and transactions on the Internet. An individual wishing to interact with an business (or research site, etc.) uses a browser installed on their computer or phone, etc. (the “client”) to communicate with an internet website set up by the business for this purpose on their computer system(s) (the “server”). Since a server website may interact with a large number of clients at any given time, it is advantageous for the server to keep track of different users so that information requests by the client can be serviced as quickly as possible. This is typically done using small electronic files (“cookies”) containing client-identifying information that are created by the server and stored on the clients' computer (or phone, etc. (“internet communication apparatus”)). The information in the cookies is then sent with client information requests to the server to permit it to fulfill these requests efficiently.
Cookies are often stored temporarily, i.e. the server deletes them once a user session is complete.
However, persistent cookies that remain permanently (or for extended periods) on the clients' computer or phone, etc., are used more often than temporary session cookies. These cookies allow the server to continue servicing user requests in later sessions based on previous interactions with the client. This can be a major advantage to both parties in many cases since both the server and the client can continue interacting over extended periods of time without having to re-enter information that may have been exchanged in a previous session.
In practice, cookies are used not only for assisting in servicing user requests, but also for businesses to enhance their overall operations. A common use of the cookies is to predict user interests on the basis of their information requests. Businesses then use this information to advertise products that they believe may be of interest to the user, but which may not have been part of the original user request. In many cases, businesses may also sell information on user interests to other businesses, who in turn may advertise additional products to the user. In most cases, this may not be a significant issue for the user, but may be beneficial since it may assist him/her in locating the product/information more quickly than would otherwise be possible.
In an ideal situation, no real issues are expected even when the unsolicited information is not useful, since the user is known to the server (and other third parties) only through the limited information stored in the cookie. In practice however, problems arise since the user may provide personally identifying information to the server, for example, through a purchase request. When such information is combined with cookies placed by different websites, it may be possible for a server to keep track of an identifiable client as he/she conducts various activities across different websites on the Internet.
The above issue is usually not a problem since most reputable websites (servers) do not track client web usage across different sites. The client may also delete the cookie file(s) to prevent this type of tracking. Unfortunately, this situation has been changing in recent years as many websites attempt to track users web usage via the cookies set by different servers. If cookies are deleted, the information is often recreated using other identifying information such as client browser settings, IP numbers, etc., and cookies are then reset to permit further tracking. This can result in loss of privacy for the client since the information aggregated by the tracking server can be sold to a wide variety of unknown third parties who may have motives that are not in the best interests of the client. Given this problem, there is now increasing interest in developing methods that can prevent tracking of individual interactions on the Internet.